As a young boy, Halloween was by far my most cherished secular holiday, as it struck the perfect balance between time-honored American tradition and over-the-top American commercialization.
Ever since I can remember, I've always been a big \atmosphere"" guy, always very aware and appreciative of the ambiance radiated by my surroundings. Set in autumn's twilight, with jack-o-lanterns flickering and auburn leaves dancing in the air, Halloween has captured my imagination since the days of ""Ghost Busters"" and ""Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.""
Of course, costumes have always been a major characteristic of my Halloween experience. The first few costumes were generally the same formula of ""cute kid, basic costume,"" no matter what the theme-little Spiderman, little devil, little anything.
As I matured into young adulthood, my taste in All-Hallows-Eve attire underwent a grand transformation. No longer would kids' costumes suffice; thanks to films like ""Halloween"" and ""Friday the 13th,"" I craved dressing up as deranged madmen and grotesque monsters.
Yet no matter how I dressed, the love for trick-or-treating, watching scary movies, telling ghost stories in a dark basement, and playing hide-and-go-seek tag (with the ""it"" wearing a hockey mask) would remain constant.
Then I came to UW-Madison. Everything I thought I knew about an enjoyable Halloween was thrown right out the window. Candy got replaced by booze. One night became an entire weekend. Costumes... well, let's just say if you don't go big, you most certainly go home. Maybe I should start packing.
Here I sit, with less than a week away until the madness begins, and I have very little in the way of good costume inspiration.
The key to a successful costume is originality. One stroll down State Street this weekend will tell you this. Last year, a few friends and I dressed as the ""Bill Braskey"" crew from the Saturday Night Live skit: some guys dressed in disheveled sport coats and misplaced ties, walking around with snifter glasses. Original, yes, but there were probably three people in the entire city that figured out who we were supposed to be.
Necessarily, the other key to a winning costume is recognition. By far, the best costume I saw last year was the life-sized Pac-Man chased by Blinky, Inky, Pinky and Sue. This cadre certainly falls within the pantheon of, ""Shoot, I wish I would've thought of that!"" costumes.
I'm not saying the feminine contingent has an easier time at creating a great costume, but the options are more tangible when you can go as a ""sexified"" twist on a common convention-the sexy nurse, the sexy cop, the sexy Girl Scout. If I tried that, I'd end up looking like one of the Village People, and not very sexy at all.
But alas, I am still wont for the perfect costume. As long as there is popular culture, there will be source material to exploit in the aim of crafting the right Halloween garb-hopefully you've tapped into some great costume muse of your own.
I wish you the very best of Halloween weekends. Be safe, have fun, hug a police officer and keep your moronic, out-of-town friends in check-we don't need a repeat of last year.
writePNL@yahoo.com.
